SEMPAKU UNEIKAI SIYOSEN

During the Pacific War, a number of Vichy French vessels were chartered by Japan. After France's defeat by Nazi Germany, 84-year old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain, hero of Verdun in WWI, was appointed the new premier. On 22 June 1940, Petain signed the Franco-German Armistice that divided France into occupied and unoccupied zones. After the armistice, most of France's merchant marine establishment was integrated into Vichy’s fleet.

On 10 July 1940, a vote by the National Assembly proclaimed a new government located at Vichy in France’s unoccupied southern zone. Vichy was the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944. Pétain and the Vichy regime fully collaborated with the German occupation. After the liberation of France from the Nazis, elderly Petain was tried, convicted of treason and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by General Charles de Gaulle.

In early 1942, the Japanese requisitioned many Vichy French ships in Indochina under the Right of Angary. In international law, the Right of Angary is the right of belligerents to requisition for their use neutral merchant vessels, aircraft, and other means of transport that are within their territorial jurisdiction. Generally, the Right of Angary should be applied only in case of pressing need in time of war and compensation is due to the neutral owner.

Most Vichy French ships in Indochina went to Japan where they were chartered by wholly owned Japanese Government Teikoku Senpaku Kaisha (Imperial Steamship Co.), given Japanese names and operated by Japanese steamship companies such as Osaka Shosen Kaisha (OSK), Mitsui, Nihon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and others.

This page will cover the activities of ten Vichy French vessels in Japanese service. Another Vichy transport, TEIA MARU (ex-ARAMIS) has already been covered in our KOKANSEN Diplomatic Exchange and Repatriation Ships page.

Data for some vessels are incomplete for some time periods. Readers with access to missing data are requested to post the information on the Discussion & Questions board or the IJN Ship Message Board.